


Two ducks and two cats

by LesbianDragon_LD



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Cats, Edeleth, F/F, Fluff, I just felt like doing something soft and cute, Minor Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra, like a whole lot of cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 04:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20558303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesbianDragon_LD/pseuds/LesbianDragon_LD
Summary: Edelgard was jealous of Ferdinand and Hubert's relationship. Not because she had a crush on any of them, not because she missed her friends or felt left out...but because she's soft for cute dates. But her wife Byleth certainly took notice.





	Two ducks and two cats

**Author's Note:**

> Reading that El felt jealous of Ferdie and Hubie's excited tea x emo coffee relationship gave me an idea. Seeing that cats are a topic of interest in El's tea time gave me another idea. So boom.
> 
> Also this one is innocent, I got a bit tired of writing more mature content and I think this was a nice break. Sometimes you just want to make dumb wholesome content, y'know?

Edelgard sipped on her tea before resuming her writing. Byleth sat beside her, drinking as well as she read a book. Byleth would often keep her wife company when she had to work, and this day had been no different. Usually they stayed inside Edelgard’s cozy study as the empress read, wrote and signed official papers away, but today the sun had been shining so brightly over the blue sky that they couldn’t resist taking themselves outside. And so they sat together at a table placed on the center of the palace’s garden, doing their respective activities under the cool shade of trees, enjoying a pleasant spring breeze.  
Seemingly alone as guards were only required when they left the palace’s grounds, Byleth was the first one to notice their presence. The ever attentive ex-mercenary lifted her eyes from the history book she was reading, only to meet a tall dark haired figure moving along in the distance behind some bushes.

“Who’s there?” Byleth called out, her wife immediately stopping her work to look out in the same direction.

The dark figure stopped and moved closer to them. As he moved around the bushes and got closer, a shorter figure behind him could be spotted as well.

“Hubert? Ferdinand? What are you two doing?” Edelgard called them out. 

As both stepped into view, Hubert gave a courteous bow. His face had a slight tint of red, but Ferdinand was smiling from ear to ear.

“Apologies, your Majesties. Ferdinand and I didn’t mean to startle you, we were simply on our way to-“Hubert started, before being cut-off by his lover.

“Feed ducks!” Ferdinand exclaimed, excited, surprising both Edelgard and Byleth.

“Feed…ducks? I’m afraid I don’t follow…” Edelgard questioned, sharing a confused look with Byleth who looked as dumbfounded as she was, before turning her head to face Hubert. The poor dark mage was crimson with embarrassment now, but his fiancé kept his happy demeanor.

“We’re going to feed some ducks at the pond!” Ferdinand repeated, Hubert lifting his hand to hide his face in shame, Edelgard still looking as if she was staring at something unbelievable and Byleth suppressing a laugh at the scene.  
Then, Edelgard cleared her throat before speaking. 

“If you two have…private affairs to attend to, you know lying is not necessary. Just let me know when I can have you back to plan our meeting with Queen Petra about our alliance with Brigid-“

Before Edelgard had finished, Ferdinand took a basket of bread from behind his back, proudly exposing it to everyone. Edelgard suddenly stopped, incredulous. 

“Oh…you were serious…” it was now Edelgard’s turn to turn red, matching Hubert’s embarrassment. She cleared her throat again, “my apologies and please carry on, just be back before night comes.”

Hubert politely bowed, anxious to retreat. Ferdinand gave them both a courteous yet familiar goodbye before excusing both himself and Hubert. They held hands as they walked away, Hubert still desperately red as Ferdinand beamed with laughter, reassuring his lover that there was nothing wrong with showing his softer side in public.  
When they were out of their view, Edelgard turned to her wife, her face still red.

“Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who thought that ‘duck feeding’ was a blatant lie, or even worse, a euphemism for something else…”

Byleth merely laughed.

“Well, the image of Hubert being a momma duck to a bunch of ducklings truly is as funny as it is suspicious” Byleth smiled, patting her wife’s back to reassure her “but don’t worry, I don’t think they took it as an insult. Ferdinand definitely didn’t!”

Edelgard buried her face in her hands. Byleth laughed it off, telling her they’d forget it by the end of the day. After a moment though, Edelgard said something that caught Byleth’s attention.

“You know…I’m rather jealous of them…” Edelgard told her, her hands falling back to the table to show her face again. There was certain seriousness in her features now.

“What do you mean?” Byleth asked her, concerned.

“Well, you know, they get to do so much together… going on dates so often…I know we spend time together as well, but it’s not the same, is it? I’m always working, forcing you to wait for me…it’s so rare that we get to spend time together outside of work and if only I had more time…I wish I could take you to places as well, I wish we could do things together like they do…”

Byleth took her wife’s hands in hers, kissing them before she spoke.

“El, the war just ended. We won’t be busy forever. And you know we can take breaks, you can find help and temporary replacements…you’re human too, we deserve to rest as well.”

Edelgard smiled. Her wife always knew what to say to make things better. Edelgard reached over to kiss Byleth, and Byleth eagerly accepted. When Edelgard pulled away to go back to her work, Byleth called out to her again.

“Can you take a break now?”

“What?” Edelgard let out in confusion, “I…I suppose I can finish these later today…what do you have in mind?”

Byleth suddenly got up, finishing her tea in a single sip.

“Hold on, collect your things and I’ll be right back, I swear!” she told Edelgard before sprinting inside the palace. Edelgard did just that, and after some moments Byleth was back with a basket.

“Don’t tell me we’re following Hubert and Ferdinand to the pond! Byleth I love you but we have to leave them alone, we might stumble upon something we do not want to see-“

“No, don’t worry, we’re not going to the pond! Come on!” Byleth exclaimed as she helped Edelgard up.

Byleth lead Edelgard to the opposite direction from where Hubert and Ferdinand headed to. They walked for a while until they reached a place, still inside the garden and seemingly empty. It held a fountain with flowing water, and Edelgard saw what appeared to be around ten stray cats, drinking from it, playing around it and resting under shadows cast by the trees that were near. At first, the cats seemed to be wary of Edelgard and Byleth, but as Byleth crouched down and opened the basket to reveal it to be filled with ham, the cats started to approach the pair and even more cats showed up from behind the trees and bushes.

“There’s so many of them!” Edelgard stated in delight as the furry critters started to gather around them.

They both sat down under a tree, and Byleth started to cut the ham in small pieces, handing some to her wife. Soon they were hand feeding the cats who gathered around them, much to Edelgard’s excitement.  
It didn’t take long before a needy grey kitten made its way to Edelgard’s lap, and the empress couldn’t help a joyful squeal. Byleth smiled at her wife having the time of her life.

“W-what do I do? I never really had cats before, and even at the monastery I barely had time to pet them…is he going to scratch me?” Edelgard asked, a slight panic in her voice.

“No, he seems to like you! Let him sniff your hand so he can trust you…” Byleth instructed her and Edelgard complied, receiving a nudge from the purring kitten, begging to be petted. Edelgard was a bit skeptical at first, but her wife encouraged her to keep going.  
As Edelgard scratched his head, Byleth herself was holding another docile white kitten in her arms, and more cats started pooling around both of their laps, chilling next to them. An older ginger cat tried to climb up Edelgard’s arm, first scaring her and having the empress yelp in surprise but ending with her helping him to climb onto her lap, next to the grey kitten.

“They are all so cute! How did you know they were even here?” Edelgard asked Byleth, petting both cats in her lap while using one hand for each.

“Oh, I just happened to see them all here once, when I came to talk to the gatekeeper…” Byleth explained as she caught a kitten who was playing in her shoulder before he fell down, setting him down on her lap instead “since then, every time I come to this place they’ve been here. I wanted to show them to you for some time, but I suppose I just forgot until now…”

“Well, I’m glad this was the perfect opportunity, then!” Edelgard laughed “but now I insist that we have to come here more often!”

“I figured you’d say that.”

Still holding the cats, Edelgard rested her head on Byleth’s shoulder. Byleth glanced down at her wife’s lap, watching her spoil the ginger and the grey cats.

“I can’t believe I’m jealous of two cats…” Byleth let out, prompting a wholesome laugh from Edelgard.

“See? It’s not just me!” came as Edelgard’s response.

The two stayed there for some time, resting and watching the clouds drift away above them. Eventually, some of the cats started to leave as well, returning to their activities and disappearing into the trees where they once came from. The ginger cat, along with more kittens who were around them left, leaving only the grey cat in Edelgard’s lap and the white cat in Byleth’s.

“We have to return soon…” Byleth reminded her.

“I know…but thank you for this, Byleth.”

They both moved carefully as to not startle the remaining cats as they got up. Once up, Edelgard cupped her wife’s face, standing on the tips of her toes so she could kiss the taller woman’s temple. They started walking away when they noticed that the white and grey kittens were still following them. Byleth picked them both up, and her wife was quick to gesture that she wanted to hold one too. Byleth handed her the grey one, smiling when her wife held him close as if she was cradling a baby.

“Still jealous of Hubert and Ferdinand now?” Byleth joked, her wife giving her a smug look before she replied.

“If we adopt these two cats and keep them in our room, I promise I won’t be.”

Byleth smiled, one finger playing with the white kitten she held herself.

“As long as they don’t take my spot in your arms all for themselves, we have a deal.”


End file.
